Nosocomial infections are a cause of concern for hospital patients and the incidence rates of these infections are greater in intensive care units (ICUs) due to the invasive nature of treatments, additional risk factors and comorbidities, and therapies used. Invasive devices, such as vascular central lines, Foley catheters, and mechanical ventilators pose a risk for critically ill patients in the ICUs to develop device-related, healthcare-associated infections (HAI). The purpose of this study was to describe the epidemiological characteristics of patients who developed device-related HAIs within 3 ICU units (medical-surgical, cardiovascular, and neurosurgical) of an academic medical facility. The ecosocial theory of disease distribution provided the theoretical framework for the study to describe how ecological and social determinants interact and affect health variances. Secondary data were analyzed using analysis of variance (ANOVA), Pearson correlations, and chi-square statistical tests. A total of 4,213 patients admitted to the 3 ICUs from 2010-2014 were identified. According to the chi-square analysis, there was significant association between race/ethnicity and type of device-associated infection; between gender and types of infection; and between risk factors (diabetes, obesity, smoking habits) and kinds of infection, all of which the statistical significance had varied for each individual ICU. Bacterial differences were noted between device-associated infections. The potential positive social change from this study could be insight on possible new processes and interventions to reduce nosocomial infections and improve adult ICU patient outcomes such as decreased HAIs, decreased length of stay, comorbidities, and cost for both the patient and the hospital.

Laboratory tests are a primary resource for diagnosing patient diseases. However, physicians often make decisions based on a single laboratory result and have a limited perspective of the role of commonly-measured parameters in enhancing the diagnostic process. By providing a dynamic patient profile, the diagnosis could be more accurate and timely, allowing physicians to anticipate changes in the recovery trajectory and intervene more effectively. The assessment and monitoring of the circulatory system is essential for patients in intensive care units (ICU). One component of this system is the platelet count, which is used in assessing blood clotting. However, platelet counts represent a dynamic equilibrium of many simultaneous processes, including altered capillary permeability, inflammatory cascades (sepsis), and the coagulation process. To characterize the value of dynamic changes in platelet count, analytical methods are applied to datasets of critically-ill patients in (1) a homogeneous population of ICU cardiac surgery patients and (2) a heterogeneous group of ICU patients with different conditions and several hospital admissions. The objective of this study was to develop a methodology to anticipate adverse events using metrics that capture dynamic changes of platelet counts in a homogeneous population, then redefine the methodology for a more heterogeneous and complex dataset. The methodology was extended to analyze other important physiological parameters of the circulatory system (i.e., calcium, albumin, anion gap, and total carbon dioxide). Finally, the methodology was applied to simultaneously analyze some parameters enhancing the predictive power of various models. This methodology assesses dynamic changes of clinical parameters for a heterogeneous population of ICU patients, defining rates of change determined by multiple point regression and by the simpler fixed time parameter value ratios at specific time intervals. Both metrics provide prognostic information, differentiating survivors from non-survivors and have demonstrated being more predictive than complex metrics and risk assessment scores with greater dimensionality. The goal was to determine a minimal set of biomarkers that would better assist care providers in assessing the risk of complications, allowing them alterations in the management of patients. These metrics should be simple and their implementation would be feasible in any environment and under uncertain conditions of the specific diagnosis and the onset of an acute event that causes a patient's admission to the ICU. The results provide evidence of the different behaviors of physiologic parameters during the recovery processes for survivors and non-survivors. These differences were observed during the first 8 to 10 days after a patient's admission to the ICU. The application of the presented methodology could enhance physicians' ability to diagnose more accurately, anticipate changes in recovery trajectories, and prescribe effective treatment, leading to more personalized care and reduced mortality rates.

The Intensive Care Unit (ICU) is a unit that manages the most critically ill, complex and unstable patients in the hospital. As a result, the ICU is characterised by a high degree of clinical and organisational unpredictability and uncertainty. In Western discourse, uncertainty is often portrayed as problematic, and as something to be controlled and reduced. This research challenges this discourse by examining the productive relationship between certainty and uncertainty in the work practices of ICU clinicians, and subsequently, how intensive care clinicians utilise uncertainty to construct order in a highly unpredictable work environment. To understand how order can coexist with ICU’s unremitting unpredictability, complexity theory is used to frame this investigation. This research engaged an emergent, interventionist methodology, deploying multiple methods. Using ethnography, video-ethnography, and video-reflexivity, this research relied on clinicians’ participation in the construction and analysis of video data of the ICU clinicians’ work practices. This resulted in clinician-led practice change in the ICU. This research suggests that methods need to be deployed adaptively in order to deal with the complexity of ICU, in addition to the moment-to-moment emergence of events that require the researcher’s own work plans to be revisited. Moreover, in order to gain traction with, and understand highly complex and changeable environments, the researcher needs to also enter and experience uncertainty herself. Using complexity theory as its analytical tool, this research shows an inseparability of uncertainty and certainty in the ICU which is labeled ‘un/certainty’. Three main conclusions emerge from this research. First, un/certainty predominates in intensive care, and due to this, ordering is a process rather than a final state. Un/certainty is at the heart of the adaptive practices that clinicians enact. These adaptive practices are highly interconnected to the changes that the ICU environment may require, and thus produce a dynamic order in the unit. Second, the researcher herself, in order to come to terms with the complexity and un/certainty of the ICU environment must also enter un/certainty in order to gain traction with the ICU environment: unpredictability and complexity cannot be studied from a neat and disengaged distance. Third, the presence of un/certainty in the ICU can be significant and enabling rather than disabling for clinicians in their ongoing pursuit of dynamically ordering practice. The contribution of un/certainty to frontline practice is as a central driver to managing change and complexity. Therefore it should be positively revalued by health services researchers, policy makers and clinicians alike.

<p> </p><p><strong>Sammanfattning </strong></p><p>Syftet med studien var att värdera närståendes skattning av vårdkvaliteten på en </p><p>intensivvårdsavdelning med hjälp av frågeformuläret KUPP (Kvalitet Ur Patientens </p><p>Perspektiv). Antalet respondenter uppgick till 33 personer (10 män och 23 kvinnor) som </p><p>valdes konsekutivt. Designen var en deskriptiv och komparativ studie med kvantitativ ansats. </p><p>Den före detta intensivvårdspatienten vårdades på avdelningen 24 timmar eller mer. </p><p>Resultatet visade att närstående skattade balans i vårdkvaliteten inom frågor som belyste </p><p>vilken vårdutrustning som fanns tillgänglig, patientens medicinska vård, sjuksköterskors och </p><p>undersköterskors engagemang, sjuksköterskors och undersköterskors empatiska och </p><p>personliga förhållningssätt samt hela personalgruppens respekt i bemötandet av patienten. </p><p>Bemötandet av släkt och vänner värderades också högt. Bristande vårdkvalitet skattades inom </p><p>frågor som belyste information efter åtgärder, information om patientens vårdförlopp och </p><p>vilken person som var ansvarig för patientens vård. Vissa intensivvårdsspecifika frågor som </p><p>belyste möjligheten att få diskutera med personalen om otrygghet, mardrömmar och slem i </p><p>luftvägar skattades som bristande vårdkvalitet. Slutsatsen blev att närstående var generellt </p><p>nöjda med vårdkvaliteten men att det fanns faktorer som behövde förbättras t.ex. information </p><p>om resultat efter undersökningar. </p><p> </p>

<p>Syftet med denna studie var att beskriva i vilka situationer IVA-sjuksköterskor upplever stress och hur de hanterar stressen i det vardagliga arbetet. Studien hade en beskrivande design med kvalitativ ansats. I studien deltog 10 intensivvårdssjuksköterskor. Inklusionskriterierna var att sjuksköterskorna skulle ha en specialistutbildning, och de skulle ha arbetat mer än ett år som intensivvårdsjuksköterska. Data samlades in med en semistrukturerad intervju som varade mellan 7 till 25 minuter. De teman som växte fram under bearbetning av data var ´Låg påverkansmöjlighet, höga arbetskrav och avsaknad av bekräftelse leder till rädsla för att tappa kontrollen´, Obalans mellan krav och bemanning´ samt ´Stödjande faktorer och eget ansvar kan minska stressupplevelsen´. Slutresultatet visade på att IVA-sjuksköterskor upplevde stress i situationer när arbetskraven var för många och ledde till oro för att tappa kontrollen. De höga kraven och otillräcklig bemanning ledde till en obalans där IVA-sjuksköterskorna upplevde otillräcklighet i sitt arbete. Stöd från arbetskollegorna samt individuella sätt att hantera den egna stressen, ansågs vara ett sätt att hantera stress på arbetsplatsen bland intensivvårdssjuksköterskorna. Sammanfattningsvis kan sägas att IVA-sjuksköterskorna upplevde stress på sin arbetsplats av olika orsaker samt att hanteringen av stressen skedde främst via ventilering med arbetskollegor.</p> / <p>The aim of the study was to describe in what situations Intensive Care Unit (ICU) nurses experiences stress and how they cope with the stress in the ordinary work. The study had a descriptive design with a qualitative approach. Ten intensive care nurses took part in the study. The inclusions criteria were that the nurses had an education in intensive care and had worked more than a year as an intensive care nurse. The data were collected with a semi- structured interview that lasted between 7 to 25 minutes. The themes developed from the data were ‘Low influence possibility, high work demands and lack of confirmation leads to fear of loosing the control’, ‘Imbalance between demands and number of staff’, and ‘Supportive factors and own responsibility can reduce the stress experience’ The final result showed that nurses experience stress in situations when the work demands were to high which led to anxiety of loosing control. High demands and insufficient number of staff led to an imbalance and the nurses felt inadequacy in their work. Support from the colleagues and own individual ways to handle the stress, were considered to be ways to cope with it among the nurses. To sum up, the intensive care nurses experienced stress their workplace from various causes and they coped with their stress principally through ventilation with their colleagues.</p>

<p>Aim: The overall aim of this thesis was to deepen the understanding of nursing care for seriously ill patients on the edge of life in intensive care unit (ICU) and nursing home when questions were raised whether to withhold or withdraw curative treatment. Method: All studies were conducted in a qualitative frame of reference with interviews of nurses in two contexts in Norway; group interviews of 14 nurses in an ICU (study I, III), and individual interviews of 14 nurses in two nursing homes (study II, IV). Data were analysed with interpretative phenomenology (I, III, IV) and phenomenography (II). Findings: The nurses’ descriptions of the patients on the edge of life were interpreted as ‘being in a twilight zone’, a state between living and dying. The patients’ situation were understood to be very burdensome as they were mostly ‘voiceless’ and unable to call for, or refuse help and totally surrendered to other people’s devices. Their state was strained by extensive suffering; pains and bodily afflictions, loneliness, confusion and without control and dignity (I). Their need for nursing care was comprehensive (I, II) with an overall need for dignity (II), which included having the needs for preparedness, human relationship, comfort and safety met (II). The patients’ inabilities to express themselves clearly involved major challenges for nursing care (I - IV). Good nursing care was described as caring for the individual patient based on his/her situation and needs. The nurses experienced themselves to be of imperative importance for the patient’s living or dying (III, IV) and their interpretation of the patient’s condition was crucial (III). Their commitment and drive to help was high, they knew what good nursing care was for the patients (I - IV), and they were proud when they succeeded in their care (III, IV). An outstanding finding was the nurses’ experiences of ambiguity of both certainty and uncertainty. Being certain mostly seemed to concern nursing care related to the patient’s needs and situation (I, II), and uncertainty to what was ‘right’ to do with regards to withholding or withdrawing treatment (III, IV). They often experienced loneliness, too much responsibility, a vulnerable professional pride, and being pulled between opposite poles when they struggled to give good nursing care (I - IV), but too often they failed (II, IV). This demanding situation sometimes led to the nurses’ use of several self-protecting strategies. Whether the patients could receive good nursing care or not did not only depend on the single nurse, but was also anchored in opportunities and hindrances on a relational and an organisational level (I – IV). There were many congruities in patterns in the experiences of ICU - and nursing - home - nurses with regards to the situation and needs of patients on the edge of life, and good nursing care. Congruities were also found regarding being a nurse when caring for these patients, and nurses’ opportunities and hindrances for carrying out good nursing care. Conclusion: This thesis shows that nursing care was experienced as being of crucial importance to the patients on the edge of life, and the nurses knew very well what good nursing care was for them. However, the nurses’ opportunities to perform good nursing care depended on several preconditions and were restricted by hindrances on different levels, which have to be overcome in order to fulfil patients’ needs and nurses’ ambitions of giving good nursing care. As such, this thesis highlights a wide-ranging understanding of nursing care for these patients, which should challenge individual nurses, but also other health care workers, leaders and politicians.</p>

Aim: The overall aim of this thesis was to deepen the understanding of nursing care for seriously ill patients on the edge of life in intensive care unit (ICU) and nursing home when questions were raised whether to withhold or withdraw curative treatment. Method: All studies were conducted in a qualitative frame of reference with interviews of nurses in two contexts in Norway; group interviews of 14 nurses in an ICU (study I, III), and individual interviews of 14 nurses in two nursing homes (study II, IV). Data were analysed with interpretative phenomenology (I, III, IV) and phenomenography (II). Findings: The nurses’ descriptions of the patients on the edge of life were interpreted as ‘being in a twilight zone’, a state between living and dying. The patients’ situation were understood to be very burdensome as they were mostly ‘voiceless’ and unable to call for, or refuse help and totally surrendered to other people’s devices. Their state was strained by extensive suffering; pains and bodily afflictions, loneliness, confusion and without control and dignity (I). Their need for nursing care was comprehensive (I, II) with an overall need for dignity (II), which included having the needs for preparedness, human relationship, comfort and safety met (II). The patients’ inabilities to express themselves clearly involved major challenges for nursing care (I - IV). Good nursing care was described as caring for the individual patient based on his/her situation and needs. The nurses experienced themselves to be of imperative importance for the patient’s living or dying (III, IV) and their interpretation of the patient’s condition was crucial (III). Their commitment and drive to help was high, they knew what good nursing care was for the patients (I - IV), and they were proud when they succeeded in their care (III, IV). An outstanding finding was the nurses’ experiences of ambiguity of both certainty and uncertainty. Being certain mostly seemed to concern nursing care related to the patient’s needs and situation (I, II), and uncertainty to what was ‘right’ to do with regards to withholding or withdrawing treatment (III, IV). They often experienced loneliness, too much responsibility, a vulnerable professional pride, and being pulled between opposite poles when they struggled to give good nursing care (I - IV), but too often they failed (II, IV). This demanding situation sometimes led to the nurses’ use of several self-protecting strategies. Whether the patients could receive good nursing care or not did not only depend on the single nurse, but was also anchored in opportunities and hindrances on a relational and an organisational level (I – IV). There were many congruities in patterns in the experiences of ICU - and nursing - home - nurses with regards to the situation and needs of patients on the edge of life, and good nursing care. Congruities were also found regarding being a nurse when caring for these patients, and nurses’ opportunities and hindrances for carrying out good nursing care. Conclusion: This thesis shows that nursing care was experienced as being of crucial importance to the patients on the edge of life, and the nurses knew very well what good nursing care was for them. However, the nurses’ opportunities to perform good nursing care depended on several preconditions and were restricted by hindrances on different levels, which have to be overcome in order to fulfil patients’ needs and nurses’ ambitions of giving good nursing care. As such, this thesis highlights a wide-ranging understanding of nursing care for these patients, which should challenge individual nurses, but also other health care workers, leaders and politicians.

Sammanfattning  Syftet med studien var att värdera närståendes skattning av vårdkvaliteten på en  intensivvårdsavdelning med hjälp av frågeformuläret KUPP (Kvalitet Ur Patientens  Perspektiv). Antalet respondenter uppgick till 33 personer (10 män och 23 kvinnor) som  valdes konsekutivt. Designen var en deskriptiv och komparativ studie med kvantitativ ansats.  Den före detta intensivvårdspatienten vårdades på avdelningen 24 timmar eller mer.  Resultatet visade att närstående skattade balans i vårdkvaliteten inom frågor som belyste  vilken vårdutrustning som fanns tillgänglig, patientens medicinska vård, sjuksköterskors och  undersköterskors engagemang, sjuksköterskors och undersköterskors empatiska och  personliga förhållningssätt samt hela personalgruppens respekt i bemötandet av patienten.  Bemötandet av släkt och vänner värderades också högt. Bristande vårdkvalitet skattades inom  frågor som belyste information efter åtgärder, information om patientens vårdförlopp och  vilken person som var ansvarig för patientens vård. Vissa intensivvårdsspecifika frågor som  belyste möjligheten att få diskutera med personalen om otrygghet, mardrömmar och slem i  luftvägar skattades som bristande vårdkvalitet. Slutsatsen blev att närstående var generellt  nöjda med vårdkvaliteten men att det fanns faktorer som behövde förbättras t.ex. information  om resultat efter undersökningar.

Syftet med denna studie var att beskriva i vilka situationer IVA-sjuksköterskor upplever stress och hur de hanterar stressen i det vardagliga arbetet. Studien hade en beskrivande design med kvalitativ ansats. I studien deltog 10 intensivvårdssjuksköterskor. Inklusionskriterierna var att sjuksköterskorna skulle ha en specialistutbildning, och de skulle ha arbetat mer än ett år som intensivvårdsjuksköterska. Data samlades in med en semistrukturerad intervju som varade mellan 7 till 25 minuter. De teman som växte fram under bearbetning av data var ´Låg påverkansmöjlighet, höga arbetskrav och avsaknad av bekräftelse leder till rädsla för att tappa kontrollen´, Obalans mellan krav och bemanning´ samt ´Stödjande faktorer och eget ansvar kan minska stressupplevelsen´. Slutresultatet visade på att IVA-sjuksköterskor upplevde stress i situationer när arbetskraven var för många och ledde till oro för att tappa kontrollen. De höga kraven och otillräcklig bemanning ledde till en obalans där IVA-sjuksköterskorna upplevde otillräcklighet i sitt arbete. Stöd från arbetskollegorna samt individuella sätt att hantera den egna stressen, ansågs vara ett sätt att hantera stress på arbetsplatsen bland intensivvårdssjuksköterskorna. Sammanfattningsvis kan sägas att IVA-sjuksköterskorna upplevde stress på sin arbetsplats av olika orsaker samt att hanteringen av stressen skedde främst via ventilering med arbetskollegor. / The aim of the study was to describe in what situations Intensive Care Unit (ICU) nurses experiences stress and how they cope with the stress in the ordinary work. The study had a descriptive design with a qualitative approach. Ten intensive care nurses took part in the study. The inclusions criteria were that the nurses had an education in intensive care and had worked more than a year as an intensive care nurse. The data were collected with a semi- structured interview that lasted between 7 to 25 minutes. The themes developed from the data were ‘Low influence possibility, high work demands and lack of confirmation leads to fear of loosing the control’, ‘Imbalance between demands and number of staff’, and ‘Supportive factors and own responsibility can reduce the stress experience’ The final result showed that nurses experience stress in situations when the work demands were to high which led to anxiety of loosing control. High demands and insufficient number of staff led to an imbalance and the nurses felt inadequacy in their work. Support from the colleagues and own individual ways to handle the stress, were considered to be ways to cope with it among the nurses. To sum up, the intensive care nurses experienced stress their workplace from various causes and they coped with their stress principally through ventilation with their colleagues.

Inledning: Patienter som varit svårt sjuka och vårdats på intensivvårdsavdelning, upplever ofta oro och ångest, när de ska överflyttas till vårdavdelning. Dessa patienter har stort vårdbehov, eftersom flertalet inte återhämtat sig, från sitt svåra sjukdoms tillstånd. Patienterna är fortfarande mycket trötta, har nedsatt muskelkraft och svårt att klara sig själva. Målet med studien är, att med kunskap om hur patienter upplever överflyttningen, försöka finna former för hur vi ska kunna underlätta denna för patienten. Syftet med studien är att beskriva patienters upplevelser i samband med överflyttning från intensivvårdsavdelningen till vårdavdelningen. Metoden var systematisk litteraturstudie av vetenskapliga artiklar. Materialet granskades med kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Resultatet visar att flertalet patienter upplever överflyttningen positivt och de tolkar den, som att de blivit bättre. Ett antal patienter upplever överflyttningen med omedvetna känslor, antingen har de minnesluckor, eller ser de överflyttningen som en normal händelse i vårdkedjan. Ett fåtal patienter upplever överflyttningen som mycket traumatisk, de drabbas av oro och ångest, sk”flyttstress”. De oroar sig över hur de ska klara sig på vårdavdelning, känner sig enormt hjälplösa och har en rädsla över att bli ”glömda” på sitt rum och inte få den hjälp, de anser att de behöver. Slutsatsen av litteratur studien är att ett fåtal patienter upplever stor oro och ångest, när de ska lämna intensivvårdsavdelningen (IVA). Det är de patienter som varit svårast sjuka, oftast med multiorgansvikt och en lång vårdtid på IVA. Det är dessa patienter vi måste hjälpa till bättre livskvalitet vid en överflyttning till vårdavdelning. Förslagsvis utarbetas ett samarbete mellan mottagande vårdavdelning och intensivvårdsavdelning. Information upplever patienterna, som enormt viktig. En väl informerad patient är också en trygg patient. Anhöriga görs mer delaktiga i vården och är de välinformerade blir de ett stort stöd för patienten.